Tech...Polishing anodized aluminum trim

Polisher passed away quite some years ago.

No one's mentioned that you can now take your highly polished pieces, and shoot some Imron, or possibly urethane clear over them to preserve the finish. While it will dull the shine slightly, it will make constant upkeep down. Raw aluminum needs lots of polish and wax to stay shiny. That's why they put anodizing on it in the first place! You could get it re-anodized as well, but finding a place that does it, and is willing to do a small batch, is tough.

 

I was not aware that he had died. I THINK he had established a link to download the info I have. Is it still available somewhere? I'm not smart enough to do it.

 

Wow, that sucks. Here is his website link to "polishing tips"......guessing his business has traveled on to another interested Maine'r. God bless !

http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/howto.html

 

I am not a fan of putting any sort of clear coat over polished aluminum. Besides dulling the finish, if you get the slightest flaw in the coating it will trap moisture under the coating and cause problems, the only fix for this is to strip the coating and repolish. Another issue is the better the polish, the harder it is to get the coating to stick. The motorcycle manufacturers love to clear coat the 'polished' aluminum on bikes but if you look, they leave a 'tooth' in the finish to improve adhesion (it's more of a lightly polished sanded surface). Even so, over time the finish gets damaged or degraded and a complete strip and repolish is needed to restore the surface.

Anodizing (or chrome plating, but that's not lo-buck) is the only fool-proof coating. Caswell sells kits but there's now lower-cost alternatives, with the main expense being the power supply. Amazon has the proper type power supply for around $150 for small scale work, and check out this site... http://www.bryanpryor.com/anodizing/

 

I had no idea Polisher was no longer with us, I hate to hear it. There seems to be a lot of good info and suggestions here. My biggest issue is a dull finish. I seem to be getting it smooth enough, at least I should be with the 500 step sanding process Ive been running them through, but Im getting a dull shine at best...almost leaves me to wonder if I didn't let it de-anodize long enough or too long if that's even possible. The product I used to remove the anodize was called D-Grease. Its a commercial grade cleaner with a high sodium hydroxide content. Only soaked the pieces about 15-20mins but by that time the white bubbling had stopped and the pieces were covered in a dark frothy mess. Im running the smaller buffs on an air powered 90* angle grinder so I don't think my rpms are an issue there. I rake the buffs regularly. I only have one spiral sewn wheel for my stand up buffer so I think I will grab a couple new ones for it and see if it will make a difference. Thanks everybody for the input! Don't wanna highjack a good tech thread but if anyone has anymore info or maybe some polishing project pics they wanna share maybe we can get em up here and put some new life into this old tech!

 

You will be able to tell if you have taken the anodizing off if you can sand the piece. The anodizing is aluminum oxide and sandpaper won't touch it... maybe try the oven cleaner.

 

I use oxalic acid to strip the anodizing, available at home Depot as wood bleach. Also keep a bunch of oak 1 x 2 around with different radii and curves cut in one end, very useful working dents out of trim. If you need a new shape to match the trim, just grind the 1 x 2 to suit.

 

if the finish is still cloudy,go back to the emery and buff some more.

this is after 5 minutes on the buffer,only sanded to 400 grit

 

He sent me that in pdf. I'll look for it. If I can find it, I'll send it to whoever wants it. He offered it for free, and cant imagine that after his passing he wouldnt want it still shared. I'll start looking through my old CDs.

 

Good info here! So, does anybody have any first hand experience using Zoops or other post-polishing treatments to protect/preserve the part and minimize subsequent oxidation ??